


music soothes (the savage beast)

by In_The_Gardens_of_Inspiration



Series: atlas and ladybug are both beetles (both hold up the sky) [3]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alec Cataldi Is a Jerk With a Heart of Jerk, Badass Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Gabriel Agreste | Papillon | Hawk Moth Makes Mistakes, Gen, Good Chloé Bourgeois, I needed him to be a brat, It's Getting Dangerous in Here, Lila Rossi as Lady Not-Appearing-in-This-Fic, Miracu-squad Content, Miraculous Magic is explored, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pre-Miracle Queen, light adrien agreste | chat noir salt, light ml salt, specifically:
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:28:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28272390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/In_The_Gardens_of_Inspiration/pseuds/In_The_Gardens_of_Inspiration
Summary: The Akuma Alarm rang throughout Paris, sending civilians fleeing. The area surrounding Seine was mostly desolate, no nosy reporters, no heroes, and no chance for the hostages to escape.
Relationships: to be added
Series: atlas and ladybug are both beetles (both hold up the sky) [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1788061
Kudos: 10





	music soothes (the savage beast)

Breanne Almare was a marine biology student who won a chance to be featured in a special interview commemorating the every-day heroes of modern life, like those in STEM, the Arts, Business and Service.

  
However, tragedy struck, as it was wont to do, having the host, Alec, ask the most inane and counterproductive questions he and his writers could come up with and leaving many professionals fuming about the, _well_ , lack of professionalism.

  
  
The worst of all of it though, had to be the science section, as you can tell what Mr. Cataldi failed in school by way of the interview questions. They also decided to do the interviews alphabetically by last name, instead of by field of study.

It really started when the question: "So what do you _really_ do as a marine biologist?", was posed. The condescension in his words were just about visible and rolling off of him in waves as he continued, disregarding Breanne's attempts to answer.

"What exactly _is_ there to study that's useful in the water, anyway?"

He spoke over her every time she tried to respond, for the entire segment between them, and did the exact same thing for every other person in any field of science after Breanne, until the interview was over.

* * *

Ten minutes after shooting wrapped up, and the rest of the quote-unquote interviewees were allowed to leave, Breanne found herself sitting in the stairwell. She was trying, albeit unsuccessfully, to let the interview go. So she sat in silence, a scream of pure frustration behind her teeth and her hands clenched around the shark tooth fossil pendant on her necklace.

  
With her head bowed, and resting on her hands, Breanne didn't notice the corrupted magic butterfly flutter into the stairwell, phase through her hands and settle into her pendant. She didn't notice the voice in her head change to someone else's, a man's voice. A man who offered her revenge and the power to take that revenge, all in exchange for the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses.

  
She didn't notice as corrupt magic washed over her, changing her.

  
Through the exchange, she had kept her head bowed and eyes closed, but the Akuma's mask formed without the need for her to open her eyes. It was a dark blue domino-style mask made of scales which appeared where the neon butterfly outline had shone moments ago, the rest of her skin became a sharklike grey-blue and her light brown hair turned a light, almost icy, blue.

  
Her legs turned into a curled, sinuous, scaled tail the same colour as her mask. Her arms had gained small fins, running the length of her forearm, while a dorsal fin formed, running between her shoulders to the small of her back.

  
Before, where Breanne was wearing a plain, blue t-shirt with the text 'ocean rules' across the midriff, she now wore a cropped, 3/4's length surfer's shirt with a dark teal and royal blue scale pattern. Her necklace became a coiled chain whip that had shark tooth-shaped blades at the ends.

  
Then the transformation stopped, dark magic evaporating off of her, her eyes opened, and she raised her head, revealing the pale gold of her irises. She smirked, sharp teeth glinting in the dim lighting of the stairwell. It was time to show Paris what Charybdis' wrath felt like.

* * *

The first indication that something was wrong, was that the Seine's water level was rising, rapidly.

  
It had risen by four feet in less than an hour, enough to have the water just level to the embankments.

Then the water level had risen again, by ten feet from the embankments, this time in about 15 minutes.

  
That was telling enough; Paris began ringing the Akuma Alarm, and getting as many people to safety as possible.

_No one noticed the dark shape in the water._

  
_No one noticed, or perhaps cared, that TV personality Alec Cataldi got knocked into the rising water._

  
_No one noticed the dark shape dragging him towards the Eiffel Tower._

* * *

Standing atop a balcony that looked more like a Venetian porch, Nadja Chamack began the latest news update.

  
"Don't be bemused, it's just the news, Nadja Chamack here with the latest scoop! Parisians are encouraged to find and stay safe on higher ground. There haven't been any sightings of the Akuma yet, but there is footage of the Miracusquad-"

A rough chuckle cut her off, and both her and the cameraman whipped around to stare at the source of the laughter. And stare they did.

There was the official Akuma sighting.

Charybdis was there, looking quite smug as she leant against the railing.

  
"So the heroes are looking for me? How precious..." She laughed again, a low, dangerous sound, "They must be looking in all the wrong places then..."

Breaching the water, Charybdis hauled herself onto the railing, consequently towering over the shocked Nadja and the stunned cameraman.

  
"No matter," the Akuma continued blithely, as if she hadn't shocked her audience into silence, "Chamack, you're coming with me. Alec-dear has gotten rather lonely with no one to listen to him babble in terror."

Without so much as an 'adieu' to the cameraman, she leaned forward, grabbed Nadja, tossed her over her shoulder and dropped back into the water.

  
A few still seconds later, the cameraman lunged towards the railing, just in time to catch a fleeting glimpse of Charybdis' strong tail churning the water as the Akuma sped off with her prize.

* * *

Chat Noir twirled his staff around his shoulders and arms, which would have been neat and slightly enthralling, had he and the other three heroes not been mind-destroyingly bored. Slightly fed up, he asked a Very Important Question to the only hero of the five who wasn't presently lolling about on the rooftop like a particularly bored teenager.

  
"Have you seen anything yet m'lady?"

  
Ladybug, the only hero of the five not lolling about like an absurdly bored teenager with super powers, who was waiting for the news broadcast on her yoyo's communicator, sighed with the force of a thousand and six frustrated parents, teachers, and friends. "No, Chat, I haven't seen any sign of the Akuma."

  
She witheld the answering groan that wanted to spring forth, when she heard the other four heroes complain at that tidbit of information.

  
"Although," she sighed again, "I have this feeling that, sooner or later, I'll be going back to visit the Guardian before the Akuma is cleansed."

Chat Noir, Rena Rouge, Queen Bee and Carapace all perked up at that answer.

And it was Chat that voiced the thought on all of their minds: "Another special transformation, then Bug? For all of us?"

  
Ladybug turned around to face her friends, hesitancy lining her body.

"I- I don't think so- it's not the same as with Syren. This Akuma seems to be playing with a different set of rules... I don't want to rush in and endanger civilians or any of us because an alternate costume would be cool. I'd rather wait and see what the Akuma is like before we do anything drastic."

  
The other four heroes looked very put out by Ladybug's reasoning. Chat in particular, looked downright mutinous.

  
"I'd say I'm sorry, but I feel like that's the best way of going about things."

  
Carapace, Rena Rouge and Queen Bee, though somewhat disappointed, nodded their assent to her reasoning, while Chat pouted, and flopped down on the roof, again bored out of his mind.

  
Then there was a lull, and no one spoke. The only sounds were the wind blowing and water lapping at the sides of buildings.

Then, with a truly impressive, melodramatic moan and sigh, Chat Noir sat up and whined at Ladybug.

"Milady, I'm bored. There's nothing to do, and the Akuma's a no-show! We should get up and patrol more-"

  
Ladybug's communicator chimed, cutting Chat's whinging off at the roots.

She wanted to sigh in relief, but that would be unprofessional.

' _Let's see what the scoop is then..._ '


End file.
